History of H&M Essay Example for Free

History of HM EssayH M, (Hennes Mauritz AB) is a Swedish multinational retail-clothing compevery, known for its trendy fashion clothing for men, women, teenagers and children. It started out as a single womenswear store in 1947, and subsequently transformed to a global corporation offering fashion for the whole family, and their home. The business concept is to give the node unbeatable value by offering fashion and quality at the best price. HM en undisputables the best price by having few middlemen, having a broad, in-depth cognition of design, fashion, textiles, get the right products from the right markets, and being cost-conscious at every stage. HM is driven by seven core values, namely Keep it simple, Straight ship and open-minded, Constant improvement, Entrepreneurial spirit, Cost conscious, Team work, Belief in people.HMs quality testing is extensive, coupled with hard work to make sure goods atomic number 18 produced with least possible environmental impact and u nder good working conditions. Production is outsourced to independent suppliers as HM does non own any factories. Apart from this, HM does not own any of its stores, as they rent store space from international and local landlords. HM is present in 43 countries and has employed about 94,000 people as of 2011. It has 2,325 stores at end of 2011 and 2,629 stores at end of August 2012. It is ranked the second largest global clothing retailer bed Zara and No. 1 user of organic cotton worldwide.Current Logistics process of HMHM does not own any factory, they have outsourced to external suppliers that managed cardinal departments Procurement and Production. The Procurement operate on focuses on customers, fashion and composition of the range. The clothing designs are created in Sweden by around 100 internal designers, 50 build designers and an estimated 100 buyers. HMs method of production is customer-driven. The company puts emphasis into research and forecasting of emerging trends, both through traditional research methods and advance(a) ones such as street trends. This activity is conducted by central staff and national offices which are responsible for detecting new trends. The production function involves 21 production offices. HM purchases garments from about 750 suppliers, in which 60% of production takes place in Asia and the rest mainly in Europe.The production offices have a mediating function between the internal buying department and external suppliers. They ensure that the buyers orders are sent to the right supplier, the goods produced are of the correct price and quality and that the suppliers adhere to the companys code of conduct. Additionally, production offices also deal with the checking and testing of sample garments, which contributes to reducing lead times. The decision of determining which supplier is the right one is not only a matter of cost-efficiency but is dependent on other factors such as transport times, import quotas and quality control aspects. To reduce risk, buying is carried out on an ongoing basis throughout the year.Continuous IT developments over the years have helped to support HM logistics. While the inventory management is originally handled within the HM organisation, transport is outsourced to third parties. In terms of distribution, HM adopts sea transportation where their finished products are shipped to a distribution centre in Germany, which will serve as a transit terminal. The transit terminal will be en-routed to receive the goods from all the suppliers across the world. Upon arrival at the designated location, goods are inspected and allocated either in a store or in the centralised warehouse. The role of the warehouse is to hold and replenish inventory levels in stores according to change trends.